Insects in bioregenerative life support systems: unlocking their role in space sustainability.

ABSTRACT: Long-duration space missions and planetary colonization efforts will depend on Bioregenerative Life Support Systems (BLSS) for sustainable food production, water recycling, and waste management. However, most BLSS research to date has focused almost exclusively on plants, with limited attention to animals and species-level ecological interactions. Here, we review 280 BLSS-focused studies and identify significant underrepresentation of insects and invertebrates, despite their multifunctional potential for nutrient recycling, protein production, and ecological resilience. Only 13 studies experimentally included insects, and these are rarely explored in interactions with other species in the system. Insects such as Acheta domesticus, Tenebrio molitor and Bombyx mori show

SUBMITTER: Berggren A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12457449 | biostudies-literature | 2025

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature